A Glamour Too Far
by sodoto
Summary: End of "Hyde School Reunion" redone. Phoebe uses the glamour "use the face of Wyatt's brother" without thinking...


**A Glamour Too Far**

**Summary**: End of "Hyde School Reunion" redone. Phoebe uses the glamour "use the face of Wyatt's brother" without thinking...

**Author's Notes:** Another Chris!revelation fic. May many follow! In this one, we assume that Paige and Piper don't know, but Phoebe does. Victor came over to see Wyatt, not to deal with Chris, has met Chris and trusts him. Chris has the Scabbar demons after him, and the girls hid him downstairs, for some reason I haven't quite decided on. Maybe 'cause he whined about there being no TV upstairs or something.

**Disclaimer**: Charmed belongs to, and is not limited to, Warner Bros., Aaron Spelling and Spelling Productions. This is a fan fic, for the fans and by a fan and no money exchanged hands what-so-ever. I do not own the show or the characters and I make no claim to their ownership.

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Wyatt was asleep. His face was the picture of angelic serenity, his hair fanned out into a golden halo as his tiny chest rose and fell with his breathing. A true image of peace, and goodness, and Piper's heart clenched when she remembered what was going to happen to him if they failed.

Her sweet little boy was going to grow up cold, and hard, and evil. A killer.

She forced the nausea away, and just let herself enjoy watching her baby boy sleep, protected by her and her father. Piper flickered a glance at her father, and smiled at the ecstatic look on his face.

"Mmm." Piper let the warm sound fall from her closed mouth, trying to express what she was feeling when she looked at her sleeping beauty. Then, with a hint of small jealousy washing wryly through her voice, she said, "I wish _I _was asleep."

"You should sleep," Victor Bennett said, his tone tender as he touched her on the arm, face furrowed in concern for her.

Piper shook her head determinedly. "No, I can't. Not until Phoebe's back and Chris' demons are vanquished and I figure out why Phoebe and he are so secretive. Oh, and how I tell Leo that I'm pregnant again. And if I can actually trust Chris."

Victor shifted on the spot, shuffling to get a better look at his sleeping grandson. "I like Chris. I don't know, there's just something about him."

Piper smiled tightly. "I _like_ him well enough," she said. "Trust, that's a bit different."

"Well, the kid says he came here to save his own family too. That's something to be admired." Victor fell silent for a while, but it wasn't awkward. "Whatever it is that he's hiding, I'm sure it's for a good reason."

Piper nodded. "Yeah-"

The loud crashing thud coming from downstairs stopped her mid-sentence, and her entire stance changed. Victor watched in despair as his daughter, relaxed as she had been even in her state of emotional turmoil, tensed into a fighting position. _Why _my_ daughters, huh? Why should _they_ be the ones to suffer this way?_

Already heading for the doorway, Piper turned as she walked. "Wait here," she instructed. "Wyatt's force field will protect you- Paige!"

Paige stood, filling up the doorway even with her diminutive presence. "Scabbar demons," she said, as Chris appeared guiltily at her shoulder, flushing slightly, with a fresh bruise on his cheek. "I tried to keep him in the forcefield, but-"

"-it's Phoebe, she's calling and calling for me, and she's just outside!" Chris butted in, his green eyes flush with worry. "I don't care about me, she's more important. We have to-"

"Right," Piper said. "Paige, call the crystals to you, Chris, come with us. Dad-" Piper turned to look at her father, already stood protectively in front of Wyatt, as Paige called for the protecting crystals that form the shielding forcefield. "-just baby-sit Wyatt a little, won't you?"

"Sure, sweetie," Victor said, nodding as they hurried downstairs.

-----

Phoebe leaned against the wall, her hands bruised, as Rick loomed dangerously above her.

"Okay," he said, his voice gruff, "no more stalling. We're here at your damn house. Do it."

She lifted her head, defiant. "Where's Ramona?"

Rick snarled, cocking the rifle. "What?" He leaned closer. She could smell his breath. "Do you think I'm stupid?" He demanded. "I tell you where she is, I lose my leverage."

Phoebe opened her mouth to respond, try and reason with him, when the door burst open. Piper stood in the doorway, hand outstretched, while Paige and Chris were busy doing something behind her. Phoebe saw a flash of white crystal in her younger sister's hand. _Protection crystals?_

"What's going on?" Piper asked, her voice carrying out loudly, her fingers twitching to freeze any potential watchers. Phoebe mouthed '_don't!'_ at her, and Piper's fingers stilled.

Phoebe saw the flash of panic on Piper's face as Rick turned to point the gun at Piper, and knew her older sister was wishing she'd frozen him, too.

"Who are you?" Rick demanded heavily.

Phoebe scrambled to her feet desperately, tripping on the gravel and only just making it upright. "Don't. She's my sister."

Rick twisted to look at her. "Yeah? Is she a witch, too?"

"Yeah," Piper said, her voice cool. She recognised the guy. One of Phoebe's old friends, and a recent escapee from prison from the look of things. She was loathe to blow up someone who would be so easily connected to the family, but would do it if she had to, despite what Phoebe had asked silently of her. "You could say it runs in the family."

"Good," Rick said. "Then maybe _she _can give me a new face."

"You know, we'd be more than happy to give you a new face once you tell us where Ramona is," Phoebe said, her eyes narrowed, and Piper understood why Phoebe didn't want him dead. He was holding someone somewhere.

"What the hell," Rick said, extravagantly. "You're my leverage now, anyway. She's locked in a tank under the pumping station."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Phoebe asked instantly, distrust colouring her features.

"You don't," Rick snarled, and Phoebe resisted the urge to roll her eyes. _Why am I surprised? Allll the bad guys say that..._ "Now... my face. Make it different. Hey. Heartbreaking. Charming. Young."

"How 'bout Paige's glamour spell?" Piper suggested, shrugging.

Phoebe shrugged back, her mouth open, her brain blank until she caught a glimpse of Chris, standing with Paige in a now-glowing forcefield, looking on.

A plan tumbled into her mind. She held up a hand, stepped closer to Rick. "Who you were, you're now another, take the face of Wyatt's brother!"

Slowly, the air around Rick shimmered, and his face changed. Angular brown eyebrows, piercing grey-green eyes, a mop of brown hair...

"Yeah," Rick-as-Chris said, nodding, picking up the mirror and admiring himself in it.

_Narcissist,_ Phoebe thought viciously, taking advantage of his distraction to run around him and towards the house.

"I like it," Rick-as-Chris said. "This will work."

He turned, and saw Phoebe running up the steps towards a slightly gob smacked Piper.

"Come on!" Phoebe hissed, barreling into her pregnant sister and pushing her back into the house. Paige collapsed the forcefield long enough for them to get in, pushing the stone back into place as they were safely inside. "This could be messy," Phoebe warned, her face blanching in distaste at the idea.

Puzzled, Rick-as-Chris looked up at them, huddled in the doorway under protection from the glowing sphere of light and magic. Angry, he raised his gun to fire at them, but behind him three Scabbar demons appeared.

"Back so soon," Paige whispered, triumphantly, as Rick-as-Chris turned around and saw them. His eyes widened, and he immediately fired at two of them. The bullets had absolutely no effect. The Scabbar demons opened their mouths, hissing, and spewing yellow acidic goo at Rick.

They watched as Rick-as-Chris was engulfed by the goo, screaming in pain as he literally melted away. "Aaaaaaaaaah!" Satisfied that "Chris" was actually gone, the demons shimmered out.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Phoebe smiled up at Piper and Paige.

"You okay?" Paige asked.

"Yeah," Phoebe said.

"You know you had to, right?"

Sadly, Phoebe nodded. "I know."

Breathing hard, Chris turned and grinned at Phoebe. "If I ever give you cheek again, remind me that you saved my ass, okay?"

Phoebe grinned brilliantly at the Whitelighter. "Will do."

Chris' faintly panicked expression made her grin wider as her future nephew realised the implications of what he'd just promised, until Phoebe realised he was still looking too-white… Turning, she saw why. Paige, and Piper were now looking at the two, confusion evident on their faces.

"Take the face of Wyatt's brother?" Paige was the one to eventually question as she kicked away the shielding stones with one heel. Piper waved her hands almost distractedly as if to unfreeze anyone she might have frozen.

Chris exhaled and looked upwards, while Phoebe winced inwardly. _Oh, shit_.

"Um." Phoebe fidgeted. She looked at Chris, who looked back at her with an expression of anguish on his face. "I'm sorry, Chris. But they deserve to know."

"Know what?" Piper demanded her voice harsh. "What the hell are you saying?"

"That Chris is your son," Phoebe said, finding strength enough to voice the truth, taking pity on her trembling nephew. "Wyatt's younger brother."

"But how- how can that be?" Piper's mouth worked soundlessly for a moment. "I- I'm pregnant, but not- But-" Her voice dropped. "With _you_?"

Both Chris and Phoebe started to nod slowly. Paige's brain caught up first.

"That's why you started to disappear when the Darklighter attacked!! You were ceasing to exist because they're your _parents_!" Paige stared at Chris in an appraising wonder, a small smile crossing her face. "I'm an aunty again, all right!" And then: "Ewww, you two, doin' it on a parallel dimension? That's so cliché!"

Piper, going red, smacked her half-sister. "Cliché from the girl who has that red strappy thing in her underwear drawer-"

"And _this_ is why I never told you," Chris said softly, looking awkward as he scuffed at the floor with his trainers.

"Because we would start divulging icky things about your mother and aunt's sex lives?" Phoebe asked with a mischievous smile.

Chris pulled a face and stuck his fingers in his ears. "Lalala, I'm not listening!" He pulled his fingers out as Phoebe stuck her tongue out.

"I still can't believe it." Piper's voice was soft. Chris looked at her for a long moment, his expression soft.

"I'm sorry it's such bad news," Chris said, his voice gentle.

"It's not… Oh, it's not…" Suddenly Piper was there, by his side, her arms flinging out to engulf the teenager in a hug, and Chris leant gratefully into the embrace, embittered emotions too long held in check splashing out. He shook as she held him, and when Piper pulled away she noticed he was crying. "It's not," she said, repeating the words, and she looked at him, looking at her with such _love_ that her heart cried out to it, how couldn't she see it before? "It's not," she repeated, a final time, and with the warm rush that accompanied his just-as-warm smile, she knew it was true.

A clattering at the stairs startled them out of the moment, and they looked up to see Victor with a barely-awake Wyatt tight in his arms. "Wyatt's forcefield dropped, so I figured it was all over," Victor explained, before taking in the scene before him. Piper had her hand on Chris' arm, and the young Whitelighter looked as if he'd just been crying. Paige was almost glowing with admiration in Chris' direction. Phoebe was looking overcome with emotion. He looked from one to the other, slowly. "Uh, did I miss something?"

Piper opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. Her brow furrowed. Chris seemed to be laughing silently at something. Piper poked him in the ribs.

"I can see why you had problems telling us," Piper muttered eventually, and Victor was confused until he realised it was directed at Chris.

"Good," Chris said, almost as if in relief. "It's not as if going up to you and saying 'oh, yeah, by-the-way, Wyatt's my older brother' was an option."

"Well, it _was_ an option, just not a terribly-" Phoebe fought for the word. "Eloquent one."

"It's eloquent enough," Chris defended automatically.

"Then why didn't you use it, eh, genius?" Paige asked. She grinned fondly at him. "Shall we go rescue this Ramona, then?"

"_Such_ a good idea," Piper breathed, moving past Paige and through the door. Chris stuck his hands in his pockets, beamed at Paige and followed her. Phoebe and Paige exchanged an amused look and followed.

Victor stared, perplexed. Wyatt gurgled in his arms. The grey-haired man shrugged and pulled a face at obviously-now-not-his-only grandson. Wyatt giggled. Victor sighed, and stared, lost, in the direction of the door. Several laughs came from outside.

He shrugged dejectedly. "Huh," he breathed, guessing with a warm smile at Wyatt how right he was, "I guess I _did_ miss something after all."

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End file.
